Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Kalaigal

Aathissoodi is getting close to the end !! Just two more posts on this !!

Hey ,

Wishing you all a very happy pongal !

Have you heard of this phrase ' aaya kalaikal 64' ( ..ஆய கலைகள் 64) ..I accidentally came across what they are in a book at home and I thought I will take a while to type.. Vayasya had given me a nice link in the comments section.Meanwhile, I was also looking online and found the same thing in another site which I liked better The same listing is here. Scroll down to see english listing..

Did you have a look.. Wow, its astounding right!!! So many art forms.. Classifying them is such a nice thing...

There are two sets of listing of 64 kalaigal. First listing is derived from aryaas. The second one, Dr.Mukerjee's listing is based on Vatsyayana's Kama sutra. So it deals more with attraction factors. I found the first set of listing in my Saraswathi strotram book at home. Well, who is the master of all this?

Lord Hayagriva is recognized as the master of all 64 kalaigal ("chathu: shashti KalAdhipan"). He is considered as the source of all Jnyaanam and the expositor of the comprehensive meanings of all tattvams. It seems the master of learning 'Dakshinaamoorthy' , the Goddess of Learning 'Saraswathi' and even Sage Vyaasaa and others famous for their powers of divine Vaak --all of them derive their power of divine speech from a mere fragment of the power of the aadhi vidhyaa Moorthy, Lord Hayagrivan.

Lord desikan in 28th hayagriva strotram requests "Oh Lord Hayagriva ! You should occupy the tip of my tongue as your throne ! Please bless me to join the mighty battle fields of contests , where very learned vidvaans serve as mediators of debate between contestants who use their tricks to advance their points !"What a nice thought right!! Never realized myself that the tip of the tongue makes the difference in our talk...

i also have hear the word aaya kalaikal 64 in a song from Duet. looking forward to know about them. Friend, icant read the tamil words, because my computer was changed to WIn98, i dint have the fecility to read tamil words in my Computer. u try to write it in English or in Tanglish.

A lot of these arts are probably learnt only over ages like music. However it is interesting to see and atleast there are people who care about these arts though difficult to practise. How many people care about decorating their forehead today ? Most people today care more about the art of tattooing and not necessarily on the forehead !! Even though carnatic music is immensely popular, the art of jalatarangam playing is almost lost today with only a handful skilled musicians. The 'art of good manners and etiquette' which Lord Hayagrivar wants to impart to the devotees need not be what people consider good etiquette today. The art of preparation of perfumes has turned into research in pheromones. Thankfully the arts of singing, knowledge of languages, vocabularies, reading, poetry, cooking, puzzles, paintings, carving etc.. are more or less the same today; but how long before they too morph into something totally different ? I wonder.

'The 'art of good manners and etiquette' which Lord Hayagrivar wants to impart to the devotees need not be what people consider good etiquette today.The art of preparation of perfumes has turned into research in pheromones.' - LOL :)- unmai dhaan